Marvel Targets Women With Goddess Thor

The Thor that we’ve all come to know — the manly blond man throwing a hammer — has undergone quite the makeover. Marvel has announced that the god Thor is now a goddess.

“While details are scarce, we now know that this new Thor was saved by her predecessor, the former male Thor, who is no longer worthy to wield Mjolnir,” writes iO9. “The only other details we have is that this #1 issue will premiere in October under the supervision of Jason Aaron and Russell Dautermann.”

Thor is one of the “big three” characters for Marvel (the other two are Iron Man and Captain America), so this is huge for the company and for the comic book world.

The move also says a lot about how Marvel is trying to grow its audience.

Unsurprisingly, there were a fair amount of fanboys who can’t imagine Thor with breasts.

“I’m all for feminism but a FEMALE #Thor … HECK NO, it doesn’t even make sense!!” said @fumz91. (via The Daily Mail)

But Marvel clearly recognizes that attracting more women is going to be key to maintaining its fortunes going forward.

I, like many others, know Marvel best for the blockbuster movies based on their characters. There have been more Marvel movies than you can shake a stick at over the past decade. How many Spider-Man reboots can they dream up? How many more Iron Man performances does Robert Downey Jr. have in him? Guardians of the Galaxyis coming August 1. I know one, single, solitary person who was familiar enough with that comic book to be excited about the movie.

Marvel knows that it has to keep things fresh. The site iO9 says it “can’t really grasp” why the company decided to make this announcement on The View. My theory: they want to reach women and girls. What better way to do that than to drop this bomb on that program.

Marvel had to know that boys would complain. But women, they hope, will embrace this and show the excitement for it that they have for things like Frozen, Twilight and The Fault In Our Stars, all bonafide hits. They’re clear that this isn’t “Thorita” or “Lady Thor.” They’re going for the gusto.

According to market research by The Wrap and C4, Hispanic women over the age of 25 are the biggest summertime moviegoers and they’ll watch all sorts of movies. Add the young girls who want to dress like Elsa, the teens and young adults who cried their eyes out at TFIOS and the other women who would just like to see a woman kick ass, and you’ve got something good on your hands. The Thor movies have been successful. And the writers can probably find some gravity-defying storyline that will keep Chris Hemsworth in the mix. Adding a woman adds an unexpected, and likely lucrative, plot twist.

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